<p>The schools in question offer automatic merit awards - so my concern is not about impressing the school with a show of interest, but, rather, impressing the kid with how great the schools are.</p>
<p>Our finances are limited, so we're not going to be flying around the country visiting every college the kid will be applying to. It's just not possible.</p>
<p>But it seems to me that the safety school is an important one. If the reaches end up being out of reach, and the matches end up not quite a match (financially), we've got to know that the safety is one the kid will actually be happy to attend. So, does it make sense to visit the safety schools ahead of time, even if it's a burden financially?</p>
<p>I've also been struck by the number of posts I've seen from parents saying that School X was supposed to be just a safety . . . and it ended up the kid's first choice! I'm actually kind of hoping that will happen for my kid . . . it would certainly make things easier.</p>
<p>And, for those of you who actually have an affordable state flagship . . . well, I hope you appreciate how lucky you are!</p>
<p>The safety school is the most important school to visit, for several reasons.</p>
<p>For one thing, if your student does not want to go there, it shouldn’t be on the list. A visit is important to let the student know if it is a good fit. If it’s not, then find another safety school.</p>
<p>Also, as you noted, reaches and matches don’t always work out. Which can leave your child picking among safety schools. Some safety schools that haven’t seen any expression of interest waitlist or even reject applicants that are too much above their profile. Or else they don’t offer the best packages because they figure the student isn’t really interested…they concentrate their interest and largess on more likely candidates.</p>
<p>If you are using the school as a real safety (as in both financial and academic), you really should visit to make sure the student would like it. A real safety is a place that is affordable where the student is practically guaranteed admission that the student would not mind going to even if it is not his/her first choice. The school I plan to attend was originally a safety that I liked more as I found out more about it. Visiting just sealed the deal as it was actually everything I wanted.</p>
<p>Schools can be an academic safety without being a financial safety and vice versa. Visit the in-state schools that are both to make sure your student will be comfortable at them.</p>
<p>And before you go, have your student make a list of everything that is important to him/her in a college. If everything can be checked off (that isn’t a specific school or unrealistic), you’ve got a safety.</p>
<p>I agree, that selling the kid on the safety school is probably even more important than selling the school on the kid. My youngest really liked his safety school after visiting - and it was a huge relief. He didn’t end up attending, though there are times when I think he might well have been happier there!</p>
<p>More important than any other school on the list, IMHO. It is harder to find a safety that your kid will truly be happy with. Tons of them look good on paper, but you just can’t know until they go there. D1 ended up falling in love with her safety, got merit aid, graduated Phi Beta Kappa last spring, and has a “real job with benefits” in the city she wants to live in. But we visited quite a few possible safeties before she found that one. She would have been unhappy at some of the others, I think. But the merit aid saved us $60,000 over four years, so it was worth some expense to visit.</p>
<p>Regarding the visits, I know it is expensive to do that. But your timeframe is quite short from acceptances to needing to commit, unless the schools are rolling admissions. It is tough to squeeze in visits and make a decision in one month (essentially April is all you’ve got). A lot of pressure, and also expensive to do it on short notice. And really not a good idea to attend a school you have not visited.</p>
<p>Not sure where you are in the cycle, but we started visiting early and combined them with other vacations. Driving to the grandparents in another state? Fit in a visit along the way (strangely, 3 of D2’s colleges actually sort of are on that route!). Spring break trip? Visited older kid in the city where she was interning, and got in a few visits then. Day off from school? Head to schools within a four hour drive for the day. We did have to fly a couple of different times, but actually managed a lot via car road trips. And stayed with relatives (actually just got back from a great long weekend in Portland with some relatives I rarely see, and D visited her last two schools). So we saved on hotels.</p>
<p>The safety school is the most important school on the list. You don’t have to visit the reaches until after the student gets in - after all, if they are really reaches, s/he probably isn’t getting in anyway, so what’s the point? (unless visiting actually increases the odds)</p>
<p>I think the question of how important it is to visit it beforehand is best answered as ‘it depends’.</p>
<p>Visiting would be good, of course, but if the cost or logistics of visiting will be a burden and she has a reasonable shot at other schools that she’d prefer and would choose if accepted, then it might make more sense to forego the visit now and realize you might want to do a quick visit later if it becomes the most viable option.</p>
<p>Looking at it practically, visiting it up front isn’t necessarily going to seal the deal and make her love the school and for all you know might have the opposite effect, especially if she’s comparing it to another school she still has hopes of being accepted to (the perspective changes when the list of actual possibilities, i…e. those she’s been accepted to, changes). If this is school D and she doesn’t gain admittance to schools A, B, and C, then the decision will pretty much be made for her anyway although it’d be better perhaps if she had D, E, and F schools on the same level to choose from.</p>
<p>Visit if you reasonably can but otherwise just be mentally ready that everything’s relative and if school D becomes her best option then it’s at least perhaps better than E through Z even if she doesn’t like it as much as A-C but A-C aren’t worthy anyway if they don’t accept her since they obviously don’t choose their students appropriately if they don’t accept your D. ;)</p>
<p>Has she visited all the reaches and matches already?</p>
<p>If visiting is important enough to the student in determining whether s/he will like the school, then the safety candidate schools are the most important ones to visit. The same goes for all other factors in evaluating the desirability of the schools – find the safety first.</p>
<p>If finances are limited, apply for or ask the school to help pay for a visit once accepted. Many schools have money for visits for students who have financial need.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the “safeties” are likely to be the most “insecure” school of the bunch, therefore the applicant may need to show “level of applicant interest” to them.</p>
<p>This works for the reaches and the matches, I think, but not so much for the safety school . . . because, in April, if the kid discovers he/she doesn’t like that school, it’s too late to go back and apply somewhere else!</p>
<p>I guess my kid is more of a pragmatist. Figures that if the safety school ends up being the only affordable admit, then there’s not much to talk about . . . just make the best of it and move on. Hence, why bother visiting? (I have to admire the kid’s level-headedness . . . it’s clearly not genetic!)</p>
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<p>Another pragmatist! :D</p>
<p>Many of the reaches are actually within driving distance, so this was easy. But, I have to admit, nothing makes me smile more than a bad visit to one of these schools . . . and getting to cross another “impossible to get into” school off the kid’s list!</p>
<p>I am in the camp that you should visit every school you apply to before you apply. I realize that is not always possible but what if that is the only school that becomes a viable option and you hate it. A few schools we looked at that were “prefect matches” on paper (internet) were schools after being on campus for 5 minutes knew they would not work. Only on the CC are “safety schools” substandard choices for students. I know of PLENTY of kids that picked their safety school over Ivy’s and similar, mainly because of substantial dollars offered by the safety but also because they were real options to those kids not just some school they applied to “just in case”.</p>
<p>I agree, I would not visit the reaches unless expressed interest in the school is high on the list for acceptance. </p>
<p>DD just signed her National Letter of Intent for her financial and academic safety, which on paper I thought the kids wouldn’t like as much as other schools (went because DD was being recruited) but after 5 minutes on campus we all loved the school. It is also DS’s #1 choice after his reach. As parents, if they both go to that school, we will pay less for the two of them to attend then we would for either one of them to go to any other school on their list. You just never know.</p>
<p>I think it’s vital. If the kid hates the school you can find another safety. He may be pragmatic and level headed in theory but balk when it actually comes to attended.</p>
<p>And as Mathmom said, some safeties are very appealing.</p>
<p>If a chosen school is affordable, but the safety is even more affordable you may decide not to visit at that point and miss a great financial opportunity.</p>
<p>We never visited some of S’s more attractive admits because S was honest about the fact that they were second to the “chosen” school. Although we all thought it would have made the decision season more fun, we decided it was a poor allocation of funds since some required expensive plane rides. However, we did visit the safety before applying.</p>
<p>I’m with Mathmom. Sometimes, I think less pressure would have been good for my kid.</p>
<p>Agree. Pick the safety you think the child will like the most and visit it. Sometimes the school will have positive aspects you didn’t even know about until you got there. That was the case for us. Now my D is quite happy with her “safety” and her brother, who does not have the grades she has, also has a first choice school. (Ok, so that was a bonus for me more than for her!)</p>
<p>It looks like the safety school that the OP was targeting has automatic-for-stats merit scholarships and admission, so “level of applicant’s interest” is not a consideration in that case.</p>
<p>Using a “level of applicant’s interest” school as a safety may not be as safe, although if one takes that risk, showing interest in the way the school likes (e.g. having a visit recorded) may be necessary.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what to say about the situation. In most cases, a true safety school is a local one, or one that is familiar to the student, so a visit may not be necessary. My son’s safety, he knew well, having gone to many events on campus, knew kids there ,etc. The attraction of the school was that with the merit award he got, he could go there for free if he lived. Now if he had picked say, East New Mexico College, across the country as his safety school, ummmm, yeah, I would say he had better visit it. So, if the safety school is a true “pig in the poke”, a student had better check it out.</p>
<p>There are some schools that are similar enough to others that visiting may not be such a big deal until the final choice is to be made.</p>
<p>I disagree that it’s always important to visit your safety. </p>
<p>For most schools, it’s faster and cheaper to apply than to visit. If it’s a safety, then level of interest isn’t a factor (if someone would reject an honest good faith application because you didn’t show enough interest, then it’s not a safety). If traveling is expensive, apply to several safeties. </p>
<p>It’s late November. If no early decision was applied to, the only reason to visit a safety is because it’s a potential first choice and by visiting now, you can save yourself the time of applying to other schools. If it isn’t a potential first choice, then you might as well wait until decisions come out to see if an admission somewhere else eliminates it from contention.</p>
<p>Since I think I know which safety schools you’re talking about, I think your child should visit. lol I live near one of them, and have a kid at the other.</p>
<p>If he can only visit one, have him visit the flagship. </p>
<p>I’ve also been struck by the number of posts I’ve seen from parents saying that School X was supposed to be just a safety . . . and it ended up the kid’s first choice! I’m actually kind of hoping that will happen for my kid . . . it would certainly make things easier.</p>
<p>A visit could easily move a particular safety towards the top of the list…happens frequently.</p>
<p>When would he visit? Has he rec’d an invite to Capstone Scholars Day (MLK weekend)?</p>
<p>May I say, once again, how jealous I am of those of you who have affordable state flagships . . . sigh. :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>No bias there! Yep, gotta love UA - the school that actually schedules the start of the Spring term around the football schedule! (Add this to the list of things one learns when calling to schedule campus visits!)</p>
<p>No, if he’s gonna get that far, he’ll visit both. Given the potentially much larger scholarship at Huntsville, he’s got to be able to compare the two schools.</p>
Yep, gotta love UA - the school that actually schedules the start of the Spring term around the football schedule! (Add this to the list of things one learns when calling to schedule campus visits!)</p>